[VIDEO] Walk Me Through the Steps for My First Chiropractic Visit

Dr. Roczey explains what you can expect at your first visit to the chiropractor

Video Transcript - Walk Me Through the Steps for My First Chiropractic Visit

Yeah. You know, the basic thing is most people find us through an internet, a loved one, a family member, somebody who's had a great experience at South Orange Chiropractic Center. Normally, when a patient calls up, they're going to ask "Do you take my insurance?" We participate with so many insurances. If you have chiropractic benefits, we're going to tell you. If you don't, we're going to tell you that, too, and make sure that we provide you with the cash plan. Upon verifying all of the benefits before coming into the office, we're also going to email you our paperwork, fax the paperwork, or mail you the paperwork, whichever's most convenient. Some patients maybe want to fill it out in the waiting room. All right?

Upon arrival, when you walk through the door, we're going to greet you with a friendly smile. You're going to sign in, and we're going to instruct you on what is to come. After you fill out your paperwork, either Dr. Levine or myself is going to bring you into a consultation. We want to do a thorough history. We don't know what you've done, where you've been, what the problem is, because most people choose chiropractic, unfortunately, as the last choice. The most important thing is knowing where the problem is, how we're going to fix it, and what a solution will be for the patient.

After that thorough consultation, we're going to take you into exam room. We're going to provide you with the chiropractic, neurologic, orthopedic consultation. It's a series of test that are going to determine exactly can we help you. After that, we usually take digital films. Digital films are hospital grade, they're current, and they're going to allow us to see exactly the structure of the spine within, because if we can't see it, how can we fix it? Then, after that, we're going to give you a series of home care instructions. It's important that you follow it. Icing, stretching, bending, twisting, turning the proper way, ways that aren't going to exacerbate the problem and make you worse. Give us a day to determine exactly where and how we're going to fix the problem.

When a patient comes back in for the consultation, we're going to sit them down and go over everything that occurred the day before. It's important that they're a part of the process, because either they know where the problem is and take an active role, or the same thing's going to happen, and they're going to just continue down the path towards pain and discomfort. When a patient comes into my office, we're going to do a thorough consultation, a review of findings. That review of findings is going to go over the X-ray, their thermal imaging, all of the exam findings, and we're going to tell the patient how to get well. It's so important that they follow the instructions, the protocols, the patient appointments, the stretching, the exercise, because if they take an active role, they're going to get the results their friends or loved ones did before them.

After that, we're going to have somebody come in here and schedule them. They're going to explain more of the insurance if they have any questions. We want to make sure every patient is scheduled out a month in advance. It's important that we keep the frequency, because we know what works. After they go, after they've been spoken to about their scheduling, we're going to start care right away. Our first goal is to take pressure off that nerve, get them moving better, feeling better, thinking better, so that they walk out with a wow experience. After every patient's adjusted on the first day, I always want to follow up with a phone call. I think it's so important that they have somebody to ask questions to. All right? How to ice, where to ice, how to stretch. All that information is always given in detail before every patient leaves their first day. However, it's great that we reinforce it, and most patients appreciate the phone call.